From Farm to Table @ Your Library

This month, my book club decided to branch out and read a non-fiction title. One member suggested Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, and we all dove in. In a nutshell, the book details the challenge Kingsolver and her family took: to consume only locally produced foods for one entire year. In fact, a lot of what they consumed was actually produced by themselves on their newly occupied farm in rural Appalachia. Sounds like quite the challenge, right?

Throughout the book, Kingsolver's husband, Steven Hopp (an environmental studies professor), provides sidebars, which he describes as "fifty-cent buckets of a dollar's worth of goods." It was one of Hopp's sidebars, "Oily Food," which made me especially aware of my (and my family's) part in sustainability. "Oily Food" outlines the huge amount of fossil fuels a majority of us consume due to the amount of traveling required to get food from the farm to your plate (e.g., "[e]ach food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles"). Hopp explains one simple way to improve food-related fuel economy: "If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week." Hmmmm...one meal a week, using only local fare? Now THAT'S a challenge I can wrap my head around!

So, a couple of issues to think about: 1) Purchasing what's available from the local farmers’ market, road-side produce stand, dairy, etc. -- THEN making the menu, and 2) Unless I've preserved off-season foods by canning, freezing, or drying them for later use, I’d have to use what’s in season. To hurdle these particular issues, the library's collection has useful materials to help reach that "one-meal-per-week" goal:

• Cooking from the Farmers' Market by Jodi Liano and Tasha De Serio -- Includes shopping tips, seasonal fruits and vegetable charts, and 245 recipes, which are organized by the primary ingredient (whether it's Brussels sprouts or Rhubarb) showcased in each dish.
• EatingWell in Season: The Farmers' Market Cookbook by Jessie Price -- Recipes are organized by season to highlight on those foods when they are in their prime. Provides tips about preserving food items for later use, as well as planting your own kitchen garden.
• The Farm to Table Cookbook: The Art of Eating Locally by Ivy Manning -- Focuses on local flavors from the Northwest (Seattle, WA and Portland, OR); however, a majority of the recipes can easily be reproduced with New Jersey's farm fare.
• The Locavore's Kitchen: A Cook's Guide to Seasonal Eating and Preserving by Marilou K. Suszko -- Contains produce "profiles," providing advice on choosing and preparing foods to get the most flavor out of them. Also, each profile includes tips on different ways to maintain food items' flavors and textures through preservation techniques.
• What Our Friends Like to Eat: A Cookbook of the West Windsor Community Farmers Market by Theresa Best, Mireille Delman, and Bonnie Blader -- How can you pass up this title?  It's local!  Organized by course (e.g., This &That (Sauces, Breads, Pickles, and Appetizers), Soups & Salads, Vegetable Sides, The Main Event--Vegetarian and Meat Meals, and Sweet Delights--No Regrets).

Hoping to make a change, one meal at a time

- Anna, Hopewell Branch

Photo courtesy of Verica